 VANGUARD: Andy, thank you for being here today. It's a pleasure to have a retiree come back for this interview. You've been retired since when?
TREVINO: I've been retired since August of '05, so a little over three years.
VANGUARD: Okay, so tell us about your career with San José P.D. How long many years did you put on?
TREVINO: I did 25. I started in 1980 and retired in '05. I did mostly patrol; I was an FTO a few different times for quite a while; I worked background (inaudible--TDY?) a few times; worked Missing Persons for three years; did PAL for a year; got assigned to TDY (?) to Narco once for 6-7 months when I hurt my knee playing basketball. When I retired I was at Community Services and ran our Anti-Tobacco Program and our C2 Program.
VANGUARD: Sounds like you spread yourself out quite a bit over the 25 years you were with us. Are you married?
TREVINO: Yes, I've been in my second marriage for about 12 years. I have three kids, two step-kids and two grandchildren.
VANGUARD: Wow, busy. So now that you're retired, what have you been doing for the last three years?
TREVINO: I've been with the S.O. as an extra-help deputy for three years.
VANGUARD: What does that entail?
TREVINO: Basically you're a deputy, but since they're understaffed, they hire retired officers and deputies. I've been assigned to a courtroom with Judge Ned Lee (sp). He used to be a reserve with SJPD; he was a deputy D.A. and then became a judge. I've known Ned for over 20 years.
VANGUARD: Judge Ned Lee-how long has he been presiding?
TREVINO: He's been a judge for about 17 years.
VANGUARD: Where is he located?
TREVINO: We just moved down to South County from the Hall of Justice and we're at the good old trailers where the mice are bigger than the cats. April 6th we'll move into the brand new courthouse out there after four years of waiting. The trailers are in San Martin-it's Monterey and Highland. The new facility is in Morgan Hill on Butterview or something.
VANGUARD: For a while, it appeared that a lot of our retirees either go to the D.A.'s office or the extra-help deputy positions. I see a lot of SJPD officers manning the courts. How many are there now?
TREVINO: Right now there's myself, Bill Tate, John Porter and a few others that have been there for a quite a while. And then of course, half the D.A.'s office is SJPD.
VANGUARD: How long are you planning on working with the S.O.?
TREVINO: I have no idea. I tell my wife that one day I'm gonna wake up and say, "I'm done." Right now, everything's good. I've got a good position, and a good judge makes a big difference. We'll see.
VANGUARD: So where do you live?
TREVINO: Los Banos. I've been out there six years.
VANGUARD: Oh my God. Are you telling me that you commute every day?
TREVINO: Yes, I do.
VANGUARD: How many cars have you gone through?
TREVINO: I have a 2003 Ford Explorer with 240k miles on it. You know that old saying, "It was owned by an old lady that drove on the freeway." Well, this is owned by an old man that drove on the freeway. I still take good care of it, but just three weeks ago I bought a new car, but yesterday a truck in front of me rocked and I got a broken windshield.
VANGUARD: You've been commuting for six years and now you're working with the extra-help. What other things interest you?
TREVINO: Sports. I still play softball; I try to play three-on-three basketball now and then. My main thing has been PAAF-the Police Amateur Athletic Foundation. I've been on the PAAF board since 1983.
VANGUARD: I remember when I came over here in 1988, I played a little bit of softball and baseball when PAAF was running strong, and I remember playing ball in the summer. What's the history on PAAF?
TREVINO: PAAF was formed in 1978 by Sergeant Gary Rosso and Sergeant Bob Gisburn (sp). The POA got tired of officers coming to them to fund athletic teams, so they gave Rosso and Gisburn a check for $5k and said, "Form your own association," and off they went. They created the name and the foundation.
VANGUARD: This department has gone through a lot of changes with retirees and new officers coming on board, and I'd guess that not all the newer officers know what PAAF is about.
Andy, we can dance around this all we want, but I understand that PAAF took a black eye recently about its program. What is the status on that?
TREVINO: Everybody needs to feel good that PAAF is on solid ground and back even better than it was before. We had a little problem with one of the board members-once the problem was found, it was dealt with. Unfortunately, that person is no longer a board member or part of the department.
VANGUARD: And that's a member that was involved for quite some time, right?
TREVINO: As a board member, yes, he was.
VANGUARD: Who's on your board?
TREVINO: I'm President of the Board. When I retired, I retired as president and took the position of treasurer. After this incident, I was asked by the board to come back as president to help in getting the organization re-established. I agreed to do that for a year or two. I'm almost at my year, so we'll see. Sergeant Paul Woo is Vice President of the Board; the short, stubby Dave Gonzales is treasurer; Jessica Welker is the secretary. We also have Retired Sergeant Jim Spence, Officer Jason Pierce, Officer Mark Hernandez, and Sergeant Todd Cleaver. Sergeant Cynthia Cooke just resigned from the board after several years of service, and right now we have a few vacant positions that we're trying to fill.
VANGUARD: How long are the board terms?
TREVINO: Three and four years. To be on the Executive Board it's a three-year term; to be on the board it's a four-year term. We're trying to get some new, younger officers in with some fresh ideas. We're in the process of getting names of interested PAAF members and we'll have the interviews to select at least two board members.
VANGUARD: Let's get back to what PAAF is. How would you define it for a group of young officers?
TREVINO: PAAF was started to help officers with sports funding. The mission statement includes trying to get officers and the community to come together in a non-law enforcement setting and to have officers and the community play and compete in that setting. When we meet with new officers, we give the mission statement. We're a 501(c)3, so we're a nonprofit organization and we contribute a ton of money to local charities. In the last 17 years, we've donated almost $700k to local charities.
VANGUARD: What are some of the charities?
TREVINO: We started with PAL, the Chaplaincy Program, Wish Upon a Star, Abrazos and Books which is Rigo Chacon's organization; the Central Coast Section scholarship program; Boys and Girls Club; YMCA…there are a ton. Right now we're working with the Law Enforcement Torch Run, with the East Valley YMCA and with the Citywide Hershey's Track and Field Meet. Those are our three big nonprofits we work with. We've grown so much that we were getting bombarded with requests and we had to fine-tune our focus to just a few organizations. We do a big golf tournament as our fundraiser. We do a big toy giveaway for our association with the East Valley YMCA. 100% of the profits from the golf tournament go toward the toys. This last Christmas we gave toys to over 1,860 kids.
When we first started this, we were trying to determine who was low income. We didn't want to have to do that. We had worked with East Valley YMCA in the past and they have an after-school program that's specifically geared toward helping low income families, so we thought that would be a perfect partnership, and that's who we distribute our toys to. That chapter of the YMCA serves schools through the Eastside of San José. We donate enough money to the Hershey Track and Field Meet so that anyone can participate for free. You're dealing with both low and high income kids, but we make it square across the board so that everyone can participate for free.
With the Law Enforcement Torch Run, we make a donation every year towards the run.
VANGUARD: So technically, not only are you supporting a lot of these nonprofits with cash, but also some volunteerism.
TREVINO: The golf tournament is a partnership with us and the Y and they have a ton of staff, and we have our board and as many PAAF members as we can get to volunteer. The good part about the toy drive was giving toys to over 1,800 kids; the bad part is we had to wrap over 1,800 gifts. We had a bunch of people from the Law Enforcement Torch Run that came out and helped us; we had the PAAF board and a few PAAF members and we worked with a couple of private schools that require community service time for their students. We had some sheriff's deputies come help, so we had over 100 volunteers just for the toy wrapping night. We do a lot of volunteer time. The Hershey's Meet, we're there all day. We don't do too much with the actual meet since they have volunteers that know what they're doing, but we give out the medals and are there for whatever they need. Judy Baxter is in charge of that event, and we're pretty much at her beck and call. We do the state meet which is a little bit later, and then they go to Hershey, PA for the main meet, but we don't attend that.
VANGUARD: So what got you involved with Hershey's?
TREVINO: We hosted the California Police and Fire Games; they are now called the Western States. One of our volunteers was a Mitty dad whose son went to Bellerman but he volunteered at Mitty, and he was a track and field guy that was involved with the Hershey's meet. We talked once, and he mentioned that they were having a hard time financially and I got some information about the program. We donate directly to nonprofits for kids, except for the Law Enforcement Torch Run, which directly goes towards Special Olympics kids, so it stays within our kids' criterion that we have.
Anyway, he came into our board once, and then we met with Judy Baxter. After that meeting, we decided that was a good organization for us to contribute to and we've been with them about seven years now.
VANGUARD: I think I even see them working out at some of the local high schools.
So, getting back to PAAF-you were down in L.A. recently looking for a hotel. What's that about?
TREVINO: Back in the old days, the Police Olympics were always in California; they would rotate between SoCal and NorCal. Now, since they opened it up to the Western states, it's in a different location every year. We go to the host city ahead of time and look at all the hotels and try to work out a deal for the San José officers; not just PAAF members, but for any SJPD officer that wants to compete. This time we got a heck of a good deal. We spent two days down there, hit 20 hotels and then made a selection as to what will be best for the officers. If you remember, on the Tuesday of each Police Olympics week, we hold a big PAAF barbecue, and we had to find a location for that event too.
VANGUARD: Have you chosen your hotel?
TREVINO: Yes, we're staying at the Hilton Valencia, which is right at the bottom of the hill from Magic Mountain. It's not the newest or the fanciest, but it's the best deal-they even threw in breakfast for the SJPD competitors. Other agencies aren't getting the same deal we are. They also gave us a very good price on hosting the BBQ there for a tri-tip and chicken dinner.
VANGUARD: So you have PAAF members and SJPD members-are all officers that compete PAAF members?
TREVINO: No. Most of the competitors are PAAF members, but not all. It's $91/year to be a member, and it's a direct deposit from your check. Let's say you play some organized sport, and you have a team that competes in city leagues or tournaments; the first requirement is the entire team has to be PAAF members. Secondly, you submit a budget. If you submit a budget, we fund you up to a certain dollar amount; right now it's $1k per team and you can use that budget for uniforms, equipment, tournament fees, league fees. When you go to the Police Olympics, we will reimburse your registration fees up to $91. We've gotten so big that we need to have an attorney and an accountant as part of our organization, and they told us we were giving out more than we were donating, so for tax purposes and to keep everything legit, we can only reimburse individual fees up to what the members pay into the organization. There are some people that donate more than the minimum, so they are eligible to receive back whatever they donate.
VANGUARD: So this summer, the Police Olympics are being held where?
TREVINO: In Valencia and Santa Clarita, the cities where Magic Mountain is. The LASO and LAFD are the hosts of this year's Police Olympics.
VANGUARD: If somebody that's not a PAAF member wants to compete, what do they need to do?
TREVINO: They just need to contact any board member or go online to our Web site-www.sjpaaf.org-and you can download the application there. It takes just a minute to complete the form, and then we'll turn it into City Hall, and that's that.
VANGUARD: When during the summer do these games happen?
TREVINO: It just depends. This year it's June 13-20. The World Police and Fire Games are also happening this year in August, in British Columbia. We usually go to the World Games also. We've been to Australia, Sweden, Canada and all over the U.S. If you compete in the World Games, you can get your fees reimbursed up to your annual donation amount. In 2011, the World Games will be in New York City; in 2013 they'll be in Belfast, Ireland. Next year, the Police Olympics will be in Reno.
VANGUARD: When is the last time San José hosted the event?
TREVINO: We hosted the California games in 2001. It was a big process-you have to get approval from the administration, the mayor and the City Council. It's not easy-it took a lot just to get that. The city graciously assigned ChaCha Ramon and me to that gig for three years; at the two-year mark, we got to add three more positions. For two years, there were five of us working on the games full-time and we were doing 100-hour workweeks because there was so much to do. Not sure I'd do it again because it was so much work but it was great in the end.
VANGUARD: Was that the year you introduced baseball?
TREVINO: I've been a baseball fan all my life, and they've been playing softball, and we petitioned the state board for baseball to be an Olympic sport for the California games and again, it took a lot of wrangling. I had to create the rules and the tournament format; we did it and it was approved. We had baseball at PAL and we did the finals at Muni that year.
VANGUARD: It was awesome-L.A. was incredible.
TREVINO: L.A. beat SJPD in the final. They got the gold medal.
VANGUARD: There are some guys that can really play ball here.
TREVINO: There are, and you should see it now. It's grown quite even more than when we started it. There are some guys that played Minor League Baseball, and even some Majors' players with us.
VANGUARD: When it comes down to the Police Olympics release time, how difficult is that to get?
TREVINO: Back in the day, if you put down on your T.O. or vacation request that you were in the games, the department really went out of their way to make sure they got extra guys off. Years ago, we approached the administration about having that week deemed a department-relief week so we could get the reserves to work, and they did. The administration has always been good to guys that competing. They do their best to let them go compete.
VANGUARD: What are the age categories?
TREVINO: From 21 to 101. There was a bodybuilder years ago that was 72. He was the only one in his division, so he won, but they have Open Division which is up to 29; they have Senior Division is from 30-39; Master is from 40-49 and Grand Master from 50 and up.
VANGUARD: Does it matter what your rank is?
TREVINO: No, it's all by age. You don't have to compete in your age bracket-like me. I'm 52. If we have a 30-year old on the team, that's where we have to compete. You have to compete in the division of the age of the youngest person on your team. We're still foolish (names)-we still play in the open division and get our butts kicked, but we have a good time. We're eligible to play in Masters and Grand Masters, but we've never competed on that level. We've always stayed with the kids.
VANGUARD: Nay-nay better get his time off because he's going back to PAL.
Couple of things-there are no age requirements or rank to join PAAF.
TREVINO: And you don't have to be an officer. We have a lot of civilian employees that are PAAF members also.
Also because of the requirements that used to be part of the Police Olympics, there was a rule of 700. If you had 700 or more members on your department, then you couldn't combine with anyone. For the women, they didn't have enough officers to meet that criteria so they had to have officers from the Santa Clara PD or S.O. come to help fill the rosters. They approached us years ago and asked if those outside agencies' female officers could become PAAF members. We created a position for them to be PAAF members so they could compete and still meet the criteria that we had which stated all funded teams had to be PAAF members. We did that to allow our female officers to compete.
We are now even considering requests from outside agency male officers to become PAAF members. In the near future, it's possible we'll open it up to outside agencies as well.
VANGUARD: I think the officers are getting younger. We've all seen change, not only in this department but in other departments where a lot of us are getting ready to retire or are retired already. It's something that may benefit the PAAF program. A lot of the other agencies are in the same boat we are with young members that come from college and play the game and still have the love to play hard.
TREVINO: PAAF has a good reputation throughout the state. Other agencies like LAPD and LASO and NYPD and Honolulu FD, you make friends, and they all know that the Tuesday of the games is the PAAF bbq. We get a ton of people from outside agencies that come, and we charge them a non-PAAF member admission; PAAF members eat free. We get people from all over the state and they've known us throughout the years because we always do well for our officers.
I'm not sure how many PAAF organizations exist throughout the state, but back in the day it was just us and LAPD. We were the envy of a lot of departments. The S.O. has nothing close to this. They're working on either making a proposal to PAAF to allow outside male officers to be members, or trying to put a proposal together to approach their DSA to get a PAAF-type organization running. We do a good job, and other departments see that.
VANGUARD: There is another PAAF program in SoCal. Are they affiliated with LASO? Does LASO have their own?
TREVINO: I would imagine they do, especially by now, but I just know LAPD has theirs. We know a few LAPD guys and they have their stuff to. Aside from other agencies, I don't know for sure, but I would guess there are other PAAF-type organizations out there.
VANGUARD: Couple things here-since it's a summer event, what are some of the sporting events that PAAF members compete in?
TREVINO: The big one is the summer games, but there are also winter games. One of our board members is competing in the international winter games and those are all the ski and snow events. I've seen snow as I've flown over it, but that's it for me.
VANGUARD: Is it in Tahoe this year? I think Big Bird dropped something off on my desk about it.
TREVINO: Yes, he's the one from our board that's going.
Summer games have over 63 events-basketball, baseball, softball, football, soccer, dodgeball, and they have some specialized canine events. Now that fire's involved they have a muster event, ultimate firefighter event, TCA-used to be Toughest Cop Alive, now it's Toughest Competitor Alive-every track and field and swimming event you can think of. Bowling-Paul Woo is one of the best bowlers in the state, and he's been bowling for quite a while with the department's team. Darts, billiards, table tennis-there's everything. Golf's huge-that's one of the first events to close. I think there's over 300 spots for that, and unless you get your registration in early, you're not gonna golf.
VANGUARD: So what's the deadline to apply to participate?
TREVINO: For the summer games, each host agency sets the deadline. They just opened up registration now, and I believe it's the end of April/beginning of May. They always extend it-you just need to pay an extra $10 or something.
VANGUARD: How do you advertise this event?
TREVINO: The summer games are easy-everyone that wants to compete knows about it. PAAF members know about the summer games. We get as many registration booklets mailed to us as possible and get those out. We make it the responsibility of the team captains to get their own guys signed up. When we hosted the games, we tried to do e-registrations and they laughed at us; now, that's what they do. You can register online and if you're an athlete, someone in the department is gonna know that, especially if you're a team sport participant, and you'll go. We try to put it out every year, like in The Insider, we'll do an article about registration, etc.
VANGUARD: You said you're a nonprofit. Where does the money come from? Do you have major donors?
TREVINO: We'd love to have a large donor that gives to PAAF annually, but we don't. The biggest fundraiser we have is the golf tournament, but that goes 100% to the toy drive. We've done different things in the past-we sell sweatshirts and that goes to our organization. We get funds from membership fees. We have Emmy Fox (sp) that donates product and money-- $3k - $5k every year towards the golf tournament. We're not lucky enough to have a huge annual donor-that'd be nice. If you know someone, send them our way.
VANGUARD: Since you're 501(c)3, anyone that's willing to donate gets the tax deduction.
Anything else on PAAF?
TREVINO: The board really wants everyone to know that PAAF is strong; we hit a bump in the road, but that's been dealt with. We did lose 6-12 members because of that, but since then we've added over 30 new officers. We're strong and there to support all our officer athletes. We're in the community; back in the day we started with the Simpson-Silva Memorial Basketball Classic. We went from 700 people at the Civic Auditorium the first year to 10,000 people at HP Pavilion within 4-5 years. We changed it to a softball game and it's hard to get people to play. We used to do all the media, and as the media got older they didn't want to participate anymore, so we changed to a softball game.
We still do the (inaudible) Cup, which is named after Mike, and that's coming up in March. Todd Cleaver runs that. We have a police team from Czechoslovakia that's coming to participate. PAAF is going to try and do a lunch or a dinner for them while they're here. I don't know if you remember, there was a British rugby police team, and we did a luncheon here at the POA.
VANGUARD: Where is the Cup held?
TREVINO: San José ice, where the Sharks practice on the corner of Alma and 10th. We're not doing the softball tournament anymore. We've geared towards the (inaudible) Cup and the golf tournament. We might do a softball game, but for right now it's too hard to get people to show up and participate. We have a big interest in ice hockey, and golf is always popular. This year the golf tournament will be July 20th at Cinnabar--$175 includes lunch, dinner, free drinks, etc. We just had a golf meeting two days ago, and we're getting donations already. It's a lot of work. We did the softball game one year with the Fontana family, and even with her contacts with the 49ers, we didn't have a big attendance. We'll stick to golf and the Cup.
VANGUARD: Are you still doing other things? Still working security at Muni?
TREVINO: I have new titles since I retired. I'm Activities Supervisor at Mitty High School and I'm Event Coordinator at the San José Giants. When we have Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, I make sure that the helicopters come down at the right time; I make sure that the cars are there to be displayed. I still work hand-in-hand with all the San José officers.
VANGUARD: How long have you been at Muni?
TREVINO: This will be my 24th year at Muni with the Giants; it started with the San José Bees, and now the Giants. This will be my 26th year at Mitty.
VANGUARD: How many rings do you have from the Giants?
TREVINO: I have four. We should have had one last year but we blew it in the playoffs.
VANGUARD: You're the Activities Supervisor at Mitty?
TREVINO: Yeah, and all that means is I meet with the Dean and the Athletic Director at the beginning of the year, and we review all the events and decide how many teachers and officers we need. I go to as many activities as I can get to.
VANGUARD: Do you oversee Monarch Madness?
TREVINO: I'm a part of it. That's coming up March 5th at the Civic Auditorium. That's huge-it's a crazy night.
VANGUARD: I want to thank you for the time and the opportunity. It was interesting to learn about the PAAF program and where it's at and where it's going in the future.
Sounds like people can apply online at http://www.sjpaaf.org/. Click on the link and fill out the email?
TREVINO: They can. I answer emails and questions every day, and they'll get a response back in 24 hours…and one thing I forgot to mention is after we had that little bump in the road, we tried to come up with ideas to do more for our membership. This last October we did our first-ever Hall of Fame induction. We inducted seven people into the first inductee class, and that's something that's going to be an annual event. Every October, we'll have the PAAF Hall of Fame Dinner. For each PAAF member, they'll get a free ticket for the ceremony and the dinner, and we'll charge a fee for guests. We had 180 people here for the very first one here at the POA. We have the hall reserved again for this year's event.
VANGUARD: Do you guys have an office?
TREVINO: We're sort of everyone's red-headed stepchild. We've gone from the old PAL building on Park Avenue to a table at Community Services; then we went to POA (??) and had an office out there, and now we have no office. We have a storage facility but no office. We're not big enough, and I can't justify us paying office space. We've had a couple of officers that have businesses that have offered us a nice office facility, but I can't see us spending $20k on rent. So, no, we don't have an office.
VANGUARD: Your link on your Web site is also on the POA site, correct? They can go to http://www.sanjosepoa.com/ and go to affiliates and click on your icon as well, is that right?
TREVINO: I believe so, and we're on the department's as well.
VANGUARD: Andy, I want to thank you for letting us learn more about PAAF. I'm glad to know that you guys are bouncing back and that you're strong as ever. Just one thing about those Tuesday barbecues-they are good and they are huge.
TREVINO: They are. We have over 200 people attend.
VANGUARD: Nice. Well, let me know when you go to Hawaii, I'd like to be part of that?
TREVINO: Hawaii? Oh, geez, I don't know. You know, Hawaii is one of the states that's eligible to compete and they were going to host a games but the state board determined that it was too expensive, and not enough people would attend, so they didn't allow them to host. Woulda been nice!
VANGUARD: Yes it would! Well, best of everything to you, Andy, and I'm glad to hear PAAF is doing fine.
TREVINO: We are. I thank you, and PAAF thanks you for this.
VANGUARD: You're welcome. |
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6/1/2010
